Article feeding apparatus



y 1960 J. E. LAPE ETAL 2,935,224

ARTICLE FEEDING APPARATUS Filed April 8, 1955 FIG 5 FIG 6 VIBRH'TO EEDE INVENTORS J E LAPE J J MONAHAN t I A TmRNEy United States PatentO ARTICLE FEEDING APPARATUS Jean E. Lape, Coopersburg, and Jack J. Monahan, Allentown, Pa., assignors to Western Electric Company, In- ?rporated, New York, N.Y., a corporation of New ork Application April 8, 1955, Serial No. 500,199

3 Claims. (Cl. 221-21) This invention relates to article feeding apparatus and it is the object of this invention to deliver articles in a uniform manner as may be required for automatic assembly machines or test sets such as the Automatic Straightness Gage disclosed in Patent 2,841,283 to Messrs. l. A. Hosford, A. L. House and I. E. Lape which issued July 1, 1958.

In accordance with this object, articles are dropped in random fashion into a converging passage of a snout for guiding the articles into a stacking type track which provides a reservoir of the articles for the automatic machine or test set. Bent or improperly formed articles that cannot pass through the track or associated apparatus are removed from the feeding apparatus before they reach the track by the automatic opening of the snout where the clearances for the articles are slightly less than in the track.

According to a feature of the machine, the snout is also opened automatically whenever a plurality of articles are dropped into the snout at the same time which would result in jamming of the snout.

According to another important feature of the invention, a projection is provided in the converging passage of the snout for orientating flat articles feeding into the track thereby preventing jamming in the snout.

These and other features of the invention will be more fully understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of an article feeding apparatus according to the invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged view of the entrance end of the snout along the plane of line 2-2.

Figs. 3 through 7 are cross-sectional views of the snout and track along the planes of lines 3-3, 4-4, 5-5, 6-6 and 77 respectively, of Fig. l, and

Fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a control circuit for the apparatus.

In the drawing, a commercial vibratory type feeder 10 drops fiat, elongated articles 11 endways into the open end of a snout 12 which guides the articles into a stacking type track 14 from which articles are fed into apparatus 15 for subsequent testing or processing. The snout is mounted on a member 19 of a support structure by an upright member 16 bolted to the side of the fixed upper member 22 of the snout. The movable arm 13 of a double-acting air cylinder 17, also mounted to member 19 by a bracket 18, is connected to the movable lower snout member 21 which is pivoted to the upper end of the fixed snout member 22. When the air cylinder is operated, this lower member 21 is pulled to the position shown by the dashed lines thereby opening the snout to permit articles therein to drop into a funnel 56 which leads to a receptacle (not shown). The funnel 56 is supported on a member 28 extending from an upright member for member 19. Switch 23 on the upper snout member 22 and switch 24 on the member 19 are operated by the lower member 21 when it is opened by "ice the air cylinder. The function of the switches will be described in connection with the control circuit.

As seen in Fig. 2, the upper receiving end of the snout is provided with a large U-shaped opening 51 which progressively converges as shown in the successive crosssectional views of the snout in Figs. 3, 4, 5 and 6. A pointed orienting projection 27 on upper member 22 extends into and along the passage to prevent the flat articles 11 from becoming jammed between the roof and the rounded surface of the converging passage as they pass down through the snout. This projection deflects the articles 11 to the rounded surface 29 of the passage so that the flat roof 55 of the passage may be gradually lowered to reduce the vertical dimension of the aperture as seen in Figs. 3 through 5. It will be noted that the parting line of the two abutting snout members is high on the left side of the passage and low on the right as seen in Figs. 3 through 5, so that if parts are jammed therein due to lateral bending, the parts may be easily cleared therefrom by the opening of the snout. Operation of the snout opening air cylinder 17 is controlled by a photoelectric cell 33 (e.g., a phototransistor) or snout member 21, apertures 31} and 31 being provided through the upper and lower snout members for a beam of light from a light source 32 on the upper member 22 for the cell.

The stacking type feed track 14 consists of a pair of bars 34 and 35 which are slotted to provide a passage 26 for the articles which is less than two times the articles thickness, and is aligned with the passage 25 in the snout. The passage 26 provides a clearance for the articles which is slightly greater than the clearance provided by the passage 25 in the lower part of the snout so that warped articles will jam inthe snout (rather than in the track) wherethey may be readily removed by the opening of the snout. The lower end of the track shown in the drawing has a single feed mechanism similar to that disclosed in the aforementioned co-pending application which operates by alternately applying compressed air to tubes 38 and 39 to release one article from the track at a time. This mechanism, however, is not part of the present invention and will not be further described herein. A photoelectric cell 37 on the track 14, which is energized by light from a source 36 on the opposite side of the track, controls the operation of the vibratory feeder 10 which supplies articles to the snout.

In the control circuit (Fig. 8) an AC. power source 40 provides the power for a rectifier 41 for the Stack and I am circuits of phototransistors 37 and 33 respec-.

tively, the vibratory feeder '10 and a solenoid air valve 47 for air cylinder 17.

The Stack phototransistor 37 is connected in series with the winding of relay 43 across the DC. output of rectifier 41. Under normal conditions, the relay 4-3 is energized, the light beam of phototransistor 37 being unblocked (or interrupted only momentarily when articles pass down through the track). In the operated condition, contacts 45 of the relay close the energizing circuit from the A.C. source 49 to the vibratory feeder 10 through the operated contacts 44 of a relay 42 in the I am circuit. When the articles are stacked sufficiently high in the track to provide a desired reservoir of articles for the apparatus -15, an article in the track blocks the light beam for phototransistor 37, relay 43 releases and contacts 45' open thereby opening the vibratory feeder energizing circuit. When the articles are fed into the apparatus 15 and drop in the track to unblock the light beam, the relay 43 will again be operated and re-energize the feeder. As the articles feed past and momentarily darken the Stack phototransistor 37, the operation of the vibratory feeder will be momentarily interrupted,

however, this is of such short duration that it has insignificant effect on the operation of the device.

The Jam phototransistor 33 is connected in series with the switch 23 (on the snout, which is held closed when the'snout is closed), the winding of relay 42, and the DC output terminals of rectifier 41. Under normal conditions this circuit is also conducting, the light beam for phototransistor 33 being unblocked or interrupted only momentarily as articles feed through the snout. A condenser 53 is provided across the relay 42 to delay operation of the relay so that the normal momentary interruption of'the light beam will not cause the relay'to release. Movable'contact arm 46 of relay 42 controls the operation of a solenoid operated valve 47 for the snout opening air cylinder 17. In its normal operated condition, the movable contact arm 46 closes a circuit between a condenser 48, a rectifier 50 and the secondary winding of a transformer 49 which is connected across the A.C. source 40. When relay 42 is released, for instance when articles become jammed in the snout or when a plurality of articles are fed into the snout at the same time, and light forphototransistor 3 is blocked for a suflicient time to operate relay 42, contact arm 46 switches the condenser 48 across the open Winding of the solenoid air valve 47 to permit a momentary energizing of the air valve to actuate the air cylinder 17 and open the snout. When the snout opens, switch 23 in the jam phototransistor 33 circuit opens to remove the phototransistor 33 from control thereby preventing false operation of the relay 42 due to stray light on the phototransistor. As the snout continues to open, dumping jammed articles into the funnel 56, member 21 strikes and momentarily closes switch 24 which completes the energizing circuit for the close winding of the soleclose the snout. The valve 47 will remain in the closed position until the open winding is again eenrgized. When relay 42 releases,:the contacts 44 thereof open the vibratory feeder energizing circuit to prevent the operation of the feeder while the snout is open. a

It is to be understood that the above described arrangements are simply illustrative of the application of the principles of the invention. Numerous other arrangements may be readily devised by those skilled in the art which will embody the principles of the invention and fall within the spirit and scope thereof. 7 a

What is claimed is:

1. Apparatus for feeding flat elongated articles comprising a feed track having a passage extending therethrough for the articles, a snout having a converging passage with an enlarged entrance end for receiving the articles, the cross-section of the passage being U-shaped noid air valve 47 .to operate the air cylinder 17'to rewith a flat roof portion and an elliptically shaped complementary portion, a projection extending into the passage from the mid-portion of the roof and extending longitudinally along the passage for engaging the flat surfaces of the articles for deflecting the articles into the elliptically shaped portion for guiding the articles into the track, the smallest cross-sectional area of the converging passage being less than that in the track'and sufliciently large to normally pass the articles, and means for opening the snout for releasing articles therefrom.

2. Apparatus for delivering articles in a uniform manner comprising a feed track having a passage extending therethrough for the articles, a snout having a con verging passage for receiving articles and tunneling them therethroughinto the passage in the feed track, an air cylinder for opening the snout for releasing articles therefrom, an electrically controlled air valve for applying air to the air cylinder, a control circuit including a source of electricalpowena photoelectric cell controlled by articles passing through the snout, a relay controlled by the cell for controlling the operation of the air valve to open the snout, and a switch actuated by the snout inits open position for effecting the re-closing of the snout.

3. Apparatus for delivering articles in a uniform manner comprising a feed track having a passage extending therethrough for the articles, a snout having a converging passage for receiving articles and tunneling them therethrough into the passage in the feed track, a double acting 'air cylinder for opening the snout for releasing articles therefrom, an electrically controlled air valve for selectively applying air to the air cylinder, a control circuit including a source of electrical power, a photoelectric cell controlled by articles passing through the snout, a relay controlled by the cell for controlling the operation of the air valve to open-the snout, a switch controlled by the snout for opening the control circuit when the snout is opened, and a second switch operable by the opening of the snout for controlling the operation of the valve to close the snout.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,327,126 Raetsch Aug. 17, 1943 2,382,863 Decker et a1. Aug. 14, 1945 2,433,560 Hurley Dec. 30, 1947 2,571,576 Hopkins et a1. Oct. 16, 1951 2,790,548 Scherer Apr. 30, 1957 FOREIGN PATENTS 73,344 7 Netherlands Oct. 15, 1953 296,083 Switzerland Apr. 1, 1954 

